understand
verb
Simple meaning
To know what something means or how it works.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhnderstandSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
əndɚsˈtænd
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Know and comprehend the nature or meaning of
“She did not understand her husband.”
(transitive, intransitive, of communication or means of communication: words, statements, signs, etc.) To know the meaning of; to parse or have parsed correctly; to comprehend.
transitivegenerally
To know the meaning of.
transitiveusually with clause as object
To comprehend a fact or principle; to regard or come to regard a belief as such.
transitiveof people
To know the intent, motives or character of; (of events) to know the causes of or reasons for.
transitiveof a skilltaskprofessionetc.
To be thoroughly familiar with; to be able to undertake properly.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Know and comprehend the nature or meaning of
Used this way, understand is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“She did not understand her husband.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use understand
- “She did not understand her husband.”verb
- “I understand you have no previous experience?”verb
- “You don't need to explain--I understand!”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
The cognitive condition of someone who understands.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
In an intelligible manner.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Sympathy of each person for the other.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.